Sound actuated dancing doll



Nov. 5, 1957 J. Dl FRANCO SOUND ACTUATED DANCING DOLL Filed June 5, 1956 INVENTOR fiyrarzqo BY @UQ W Jar/r 6/1 ATTORNEY United States Patent O SOUND ACTUATED DANCING DOLL Jack Di Franco, New York, N. Y.

Application June 5, 1956, Serial No. 589,453

1 Claim. (Cl. 46-118) This invention relates to a toy device, and more particularly to a dancing doll.

The principal object of the invention is to provide a simple and inexpensive toy which is responsive to sounds produced by a person or a musical instrument.

Another object of the invention is to provide a toy which is immediately responsive to the variations in the intensity of the sound.

A further object of the invention is to provide a toy including a dancing doll which is capable of imitating dancing movements in accordance with a tune.

The invention resides essentially in the provision of a housing having an aperture and a membrane adapted to be vibrated by the sound waves entering the housing through the aperture, and of -a lightweight figure resting on the membrane with a plurality of slightly inclined bristles, the latter receiving the vibrations from the membrane and causing rotational movement of the figure in accordance with the intensity of, and variations in, the sound.

The features of the invention will become apparent in the course of the following description of some preferred embodiments which are illustrated in the accompanying drawing, and the invention will be finally pointed out in the appended claim.

In the drawing,

Fig. l is a perspective view of a radio receiver with the novel housing attached thereto;

Fig. 2 is an enlarged perspective view of the doll and the supporting housing, with the latter partly broken away;

Fig. 3 is a rear elevational view of the housing;

Fig. 4 is an enlarged view of a dancing doll; and

Fig. 5 is a schematic illustration of the arrangement of the doll supporting bristles.

Referring now in detail to the illustrated embodiments, a radio receiver has a loudspeaker adjacent its front vertical wall 10a hidden from view by a housing 11 which is secured to the apparatus by a rubber band 12. The housing has an aperture 14 in its upper horizontal panel 13, the aperture being closed by a tinfoil membrane 15 that is glued to the lower surface of the panel (see Fig. 2). The housing 11 is of a readily available cheap material, such as cardboard or the like. It is closed from all sides except for an opening 16 in its rear panel 17 (see Fig. 3) which is adjacent the radio loudspeaker to permit the entry of sound waves into the housing 11, the sound waves causing vibration of the membrane 15 in accordance with the tune played by the apparatus 10. A dancing figure 18 is placed onto the membrane 15, the figure being of a lightweight material, such as a synthetic plastic or the like, and having a plurality of flexible bristles 19 of animal, vegetable or synthetic origin circumferentially extending downwardly from its body. The lower ends or tips of the bristles 19 rest upon the upper surface of the membrane 15. The bristles are slightly inclined from the vertical direction and depending on the rightor left-hand inclination thereof, the figure will rotate in the clockwise or counterclockwise direction, the velocity of its rotational 2,811,809 Patented Nov. 5, 1957 movement depending on the intensity of the sound emanating from the apparatus 10.

In Fig. 4, the doll is the imitation of a female dancer 18 whose skirt 20 hides the bristles 19, only the lower tips thereof being visible. The doll may or may not have legs, since only the bristle tips are in contact with the membrane. The number of bristles is chosen arbitrarily, it being only necessary that the dancing figure 18 have a certain stability on the membrane 15. The lower tips of the bristles 19 are on the periphery of an imaginary circle or ellipsis, and the bristles are very slightly inclined from the vertical direction, as shown in Fig. 5. If the bristles are vertical, the figure will only hop on the surface of the membrane 15.

The dancing doll 18 is extremely light, as the relatively small number of flexible bristles is capable of supporting it in equilibrium on the membrane. Due to this negligible weight, its movements on entry of sound waves into the housing 11 through the aperture 16 are instantaneous and extremely realistic. If desired, two dolls may be placed onto the membrane 15 with their supporting bristles 19 inclined in opposite directions so as to cause opposing rotational movements thereof.

It is preferred to attach the membrane with a very slight slack in order to obtain a certain freedom of vibration which contributes to the sensitivity of the dancing figure. Based on experiments with a great variety of materials, a tinfoil sheet is believed to be the best membrane for the purposes of this invention, but a thin sheet of paper or even a thin cardboard will cause the figure to perform its movements if the intensity of the sound is sufliciently increased. It is preferred to apply the membrane along the lower surface of the panel 13 because the slight edges surrounding the cutout 14 act as a barrier to restrict the figure 18 to rotation on the visible surface of the membrane only. The cutout 14 may be oval, -as shown in Fig. 1, round, rectangular (Fig. 2), square, or of any other shape.

If a tune is sung, whistled or played near to, or directly into, the rear aperture 16, the doll will respond immediately with a dancing movement, and it will alternately reduce or increase the velocity of its rotation in accordance with the variations in the intensity of the produced sound.

The housing 11 is preferably rounded, best results having been obtained with a container whose vertical walls are nearly cylindrical.

This invention is capable of many modifications which will readily occur to persons skilled in the art, and I therefore do not desire to be limited to the exact details of the above disclosure, but only by the scope of the appended claim.

I claim:

An amusement device comprising a housing and a miniature figure, said housing being made of sheet material and having side walls, front and rear walls, a top and a bottom, the rear wall having an opening therein, the top of the housing having an opening and a diaphragm of tinfoil secured to the rim of the last mentioned opening, said figure simulating a dancing doll, being of very light weight and having a plurality of flexible bristles extending downwardly from its body, said bristles being arranged circumferentially relative to the Waist of the figure body, and forming the sole support for said figure body, said bristles being adjustable to a slight inclination, whereby said housing may be associated with a musical instrument with the opening in the rear wall of said housing juxtaposed against the speaker of the musical instrument, and said figure may be placed in standing position upon said diaphragm to produce dancing movements of said figure responsive to vibrations of said diaphragm induced by sound waves received by said housing from said speaker.

(References on following page) 3 References Cited in the file of this patent 1,705,863 UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,763,788

853,730 Pearson May 14, 1907 966,761 Noll Aug. 9, 1910 5 853,870 1,368,736 Lavigne Feb. 15, 1921 78,294

4 Ikeda Mar. 19, 1929 Jobs June 17, 1930 FOREIGN PATENTS Germany Dec. 1, 1952 Denmark Oct. 4, 1954 

